–West Indies face USA tomorrow WC qualifiers

By Sean Devers

The 35-year-old Guyana-born American, Gajanand Singh, is relishing the thought of playing against the West Indies when he suits up for the United States tomorrow in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) World cup qualifiers.

Singh, who grew up in East Canje, Berbice with a narrow Street separating his home from the Young Warriors Cricket Club, a club which, to date, has only produced two one-day International players for the regional side — himself and Shimron Hetmyer.

It means a lot to play against the West Indies, doing well against them will be very good,” informed Singh, who has represented Guyana in first-class and List ‘A’ Cricket after making his First-Class debut in 2017.

“I think Shamarh Brooks is the only player on the current WI team that played with me at the U-19 World Cup. I am pretty well prepared both physically and mentally, we’ve been here in Zimbabwe for a couple of weeks now,” said the left hander.

The USA will be looking for a major upset when they face West Indies (a Test playing nation) tomorrow from 3:00AM (Guyana time) in their opening match of the Qualifiers.
Singh has been living in Brooklyn, New York since 2013 and currently plays for Black Panthers and NYCC.

He made his ODI debut for the USA against Papua New Guinea on September 6, 2021 and has scored five fifties in 26 ODI games since.

“I’ve been a part of this team for a few years now, but there is a National tournament where players are selected from. We are confident that if we stick to our game plans and execute our skills we have a good chance of winning against West Indies. But we have to do the basics right and stick to our game plans. Our strength lies in the depth we have in both the batting and bowling departments,” explained Singh, who has a highest score of 66 in ODIs.

“Conditions are very good for batting… could be a little help upfront for fast bowlers… but mainly batting friendly conditions,” stated Singh, one three players with West Indies connections in the squad.

The others are America-born skipper, Aaron Jones, who played first-class cricket for Barbados and the Combined Campuses and Colleges (CCC) and Jamaican Steven Taylor who also played first-class cricket for Jamaica.

The USA are grouped with West Indies, Nepal, the Netherlands and host Zimbabwe.